Archive for the ‘Super Foods for Seniors’ Category

it’s now September, back to school, the month of my birth and it’s also time to start back with the “Super Foods for Seniors” Feature. When last we met, I listed out the foods that aid in Nausea Relief, so if you overdid it during the Labor Day weekend, you might want to check it out click here

Today we will continue with the Tummy Tamers, 16 foods to quiet the stomach rumbles, provide relief from gas, bloating and indigestion.

Artichokes

helps your liver form bile which is a juice necessary for good digestion. They are also great as appetizers.

Whole grain foods such as brown rice help soak up excess acid and also reduces the risk of ulcers

Bitter Greens

Make your salads with bitter greens, like watercress, endive and dandelion. These herbs stimulate digestive juices which is great for older adults that don’t produce enough stomach acid.

Ginger

Ginger is also a “bitter” the increases the flow of saliva and gastric juices, speeding up digestion and stimulating appetite.

Peppermint

Peppermint tea soothes bloating, gas and indigestion after meals. The herb stimulates the flow of bile, helping to break down fats and encourages you to burp.

Cinnamon

Contains essential oils that help break down fat and triggers movement in your digestive tract.

Yogurt

Calcium does a body good and those who are lactose-intolerant can often digest yogurt easier than other dairy foods.

Caraway

Caraway seeds can help cut down on gas caused by cabbage. Next time you make your favorite cabbage dish, sprinkle in a few seeds. They can also be steeped in hot water for 10-15 minutes for a soothing tea.

Fennel

Fennel seeds contain a compound which relieves muscle spasms in the stomach and intestines. When you need relief from gas, heartburn, indigestion or a stomachache try chewing a few seeds or steep them in a cup of boiled water for 10-15 minutes.

Gum

Some times heartburn can be treated with a stick of gum. Gum stimulates the flow of saliva which contains natural antacids. The extra spit neutralizes acid in the esophagus an washes it back into the stomach.

Water

Douse the burn of stomach acid with a glass of water. It will wash the acid out of your esophagus and down into your stomach. It also dilutes the acid in your stomach to prevent heartburn.

Pears

Eating a high fiber Asian pear can help beat heartburn, speed up digestion and fend off constipation.

Cauliflower

Low fat veggies like cauliflower, spinach and asparagus should be substituted for fried foods which causes your stomach to empty slower.

Celery

Replace the crunchiness of chips with vegetable tray of celery for a 6 calorie snack that also helps to control heartburn.

Hello Friends and Happy Monday

I trust you all have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Easter/Resurrection Sunday. This week’s chapter of Super Foods is near and dear to my heart, especially since hubby just had surgery to remove the cancer from his small intestines.

Many believe as I do that we all have cancerous cells but it’s not known what triggers them in some and not in others. It is also believed that there are foods that contain natural compounds that defend your body against cancer. These are just a few of them:

Blueberries – the antioxidants in these berries are tough on cancer and it’s development

Mushrooms – contains ergothioneine which is a cell-protecting antioxidant

Broccoli Sprouts – these baby bloomers are more potent than the adult version, broccoli sprouts contain sulforaphane, a cancer fighter

Cabbage – eating cabbage at least once per week provides extra lung cancer protection, it can also help to prevent colon, brain, breast, stomach, and bladder cancers.

Sweet Peppers – antioxidant powers of vitamin C can save you from cancers of the stomach, throat, lung, bladder and pancreas. Other foods rich is Vitamin C are strawberries, broccoli, cantaloupe and brussels sprouts.

Peanuts – resveratrol in nuts is a cancer fighting antioxidant

Apricots – beta carotene in this fruit could cut your odds of some stomach and intestinal cancers

Asparagus – antioxidant glutathione may help defend against disease and cell damage which is an effective cancer fighter

Beets – just a half of cup of beets in a salad gives you almost a fifth of the daily folate that your body needs which is needed especially if you smoke

Cancer is a disease of abnormal, out-of-control cell growth. If not held in check, cancer can spread through the body, destroying other organs and tissues. Breast cancer is most common in women, and for men it’s prostate cancer.

However, as written in my previous post “Cancer Don’t Care” it can effect anyone despite the foods you eat or don’t eat, whether you smoke or not, sunbathe or not, please be vigilant in getting your physical exams and check early and often if cancer is prevalent in your family.

Today I’m hanging out with Tough Cookie Mommy for Monday Mingle, so come on over.

Stay Blessed – No Stress in 2014!

I trust you all had an enjoyable weekend and was able to get outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.

This week’s Super Foods are to help your body regulate blood sugar and to make the most of insulin. Back in the day, older folks would say they had “the sugar”, but they didn’t take “sugar diabetes” as serious as they should have which led to strokes, amputation of limbs and even death.

We now understand that in order to prevent “the sugar” we have to take better care of our bodies and chose the right foods.

According to MedlinePlus: “A stroke is a medical emergency. Strokes happen when blood flow to your brain stops. Within minutes, brain cells begin to die. There are two kinds of stroke. The more common kind, called ischemic stroke, is caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain. The other kind, called hemorrhagic stroke, is caused by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain. “Mini-strokes” ortransient ischemic attacks (TIAs), occur when the blood supply to the brain is briefly interrupted.”

Symptoms of stroke are:

Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg (especially on one side of the body)

Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech

Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes

Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination

Sudden severe headache with no known cause

Every minute, someone has a stroke and because of the serious damage this brain attack can cause, those of us in our 50’s and 60’s, should take a look at our diets and make the necessary changes to help prevent one from occurring.

Hello Friends and Happy Monday

High Blood Pressure (HBP) or Hypertension affects around 50 million people in the US. It can cause heart disease, heart failure, strokes and kidney disease. HBP can be controlled with weight loss and eating right, however, sometimes medicines are also prescribed.

If you want to pass on the pills, and keep your blood pressure in check, go heavy on the fruits, veggies, whole grains and fiber. Go light on the salt, red meat, saturated fat and cholesterol.

Adding these foods to your diet can keep your blood pressure in check.

Barley – try eating it plain or added to soups and casseroles. Barley flour has more than 3x the fiber of wheat flour

Celery – reduces cholesterol and relaxes muscles that line blood vessels to ease blood pressure. Contains more sodium than most veggies so don’t go overboard

Broccoli – contains calcium, potassium, magnesium and vitamin C all important fighters against high blood pressure

Dried Apricots – great snack filled will iron, potassium, magnesium, beta carotene and cooper which help to control blood pressure and prevent heart disease

Whole Beets – contains more potassium than bananas which is important for your blood pressure especially if you take diuretics to keep it low

Spinach – guards against so many health conditions including heart disease, lowers cholesterol, fights cancer and much more

Garlic and Onions – flavoring that helps when cutting back on salt consumption but they do more than just add flavor. Onion and garlic keeps blood platelets from clumping together and making the blood sticky

Guava Juice – This tropical fruit is packed with potassium and more than twice the vitamin C of an orange

Sunflower Seeds – loaded with vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that stops LDL, the bad cholesterol, stopping it before it can clog arteries

Banana – fabulous fruit for a healthy heart

Peanut Butter – contains monounsaturated fat which is better for you than cream cheese, butter or fatty lunch meat, it also fills you up making it less likely that you’ll overeat.

Changing your diet and eating habits can be hard, but stay Heart Smart and do everything in moderation!

Stay Blessed – No Stress in 2014!

Hello Friends and welcome back from the weekend!

Did you get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather on the first Spring weekend of the year? How about the grill, did you clear away the spider webs and fire it up? If so, were there any not-so-good-for-you foods on there. Knowing you probably not, besides not all grilled foods are bad for you just as not all cholesterol is bad for you.

There are two types of cholesterol, LDL and HDL. LDL or low-density lipoprotein is bad because it can build up on the walls of your arteries and clog them. However, HDL or high-density lipoprotein travels away from your arteries to your liver and is flushed out of your body.

Keeping your LDL low and your HDL levels high gives you a much better chance of avoiding heart disease and incorporating some of these foods into your diet can help.

Grape Juice – drinking 2 glasses a day is a natural way to rejuvenate your veins and arteries

Mushrooms – this fungus contain a good source of chromium, a mineral that acts as an antioxidant.

Honey – good source of dietary antioxidants that are good in lowering LDL cholesterol

CHOCOLATE – contains a generous helping of polyphenols that are antioxidants. Polyphenols which are also found in RED WINE can help your heart by keeping LDL cholesterol from becoming oxidized, which can hurt your arteries.

Oatmeal – oatmeal does more than stick to your ribs, it’s also a sticky soluble fiber that helps to slow the movement of food through your intestines. This gives HDL particles more time to pick up cholesterol to take to your liver for disposal.

Fish – fatty fish like tuna, mackerel and salmon are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that can protect your arteries from damage.

I try to cook and eat healthy, so on Friday night we had baked salmon with mango salsa and black beans for dinner. Our youngest doesn’t like fatty fish so he ate the baked clams. The heart works non-stop to pump blood throughout our bodies which is why we need to keep it healthy.

Stay Blessed – No Stress in 2014!

Hello Friends and Happy Monday

Did you know that bad bones bother more than 64 million Americans, are you one of them? Bone is a living growing tissue and all during our lives new bone replaces old bone but when you are young, it builds faster. At around the age of 30, bone loss slowly begins to outpace bone formation and growth. Women like me, in our first few years after menopause are hit hardest by this condition, but it also affects men.

I know calcium does a body good, but there are other foods that contain the nutrients that will keep the bones strong throughout our lives.

It’s takes more than just calcium in milk to keep our bones strong, adding a few of these foods to our diets can also help the cells form new bones.

Tofu – estrogen helps the body absorb calcium, menopause stops the estrogen supply, tofu and other soy products can make up for that, just don’t overdo it.

Carrots – chock full of Vitamin A which keeps the bones, eyes, and skin in good shape.

Herring – this tiny cold water fish is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids which is associated with higher bone density.

Prunes – these dried plums are an antioxidant that may slow down osteoporosis after menopause

Dairy foods contain calcium which is good for the bones but for some it may not be so good for their stomachs. If you are lactose intolerant try a few of these non-dairy foods which are also high in calcium

Non-dairy foods with calcium

Food

Amount

Calcium (Mg)

Total Raisin Bran

1 cup

1000

Collard Greens

1 cup

357

Sardines/can with bone

3 oz

325

Blackeye peas, fresh

1 cup

211

Pork n Beans, canned

1 cup

149

Okra, fresh

1 cup

123

Almonds, raw

1 oz

70

Broccoli, cooked

1 cup

62

Oranges, raw

1 orange

52

Stay Blessed – No Stress in 2014!

Hello Friends and Happy Monday

I trust you all had a wonderful weekend with an opportunity to get out and enjoy the warmer winter temps. If you did any yard work or other activities that your body wasn’t ready for, you may need to eat a few of these Super Foodsto soothe those aching joints.

After the age of 50, four out of five adults are affected by some sort of osteoarthritis (OA) due to the wear and tear on the soft tissues in the joints. Doctors don’t have many medical cures for arthritis, but they can prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs, painkillers as well as exercise and weight loss. However, good nutrition is essential and probably your best bet to soothe the soreness of swollen joints.

Canned Salmon – Rich in Vitamin D which as we get older our bodies loses it’s ability to convert sunlight into Vitamin D. Keep a can in your pantry during those cloudy days and short winter days.

Pomegranate Juice – the extracts from this fruit can upset the development of osteoarthritis

Indian Dish like curry – curcumin reduce inflammation, an active ingredient in turmeric

The most common treatment for joint pain are anti-inflammatory drugs, including aspirin and ibuprofen, but you can can also reduce inflammation through your diet.

So save yourself a little money paying high prices for drugs and instead make meals that are packed with natural joint rebuilding nutrients. If you can, try eating more fatty fish, fruits and veggies, cook with olive oil and spices like turmeric and ginger to soothe the soreness in those achy joints.

Stay Blessed – No Stress in 2014!

Hello Friends and Happy Monday

Yesterday afternoon as I sat writing this post we were anxiously awaiting another major snowstorm, hopefully the last one of the season. People were out in the grocery stores stocking up on food as if they needed enough to last for the entire week.

In 17 days it’ll officially be the first day of Spring, we won’t be eating as much and most likely will be looking for ways to shed a few of those snowstorm pounds. We will be outdoors more and adding exercise to the mix so here’s a list of Super Foods that will help us shape up safely.

Your body thrives when you stay in shape, you feel healthier, live longer and resist diseases better. Exercise and eating right combined is the best way to take off and keep off unwanted pounds. Exercise burns calories, protein and carbohydrates, so these foods will provide the proper amount of replacement fuel for your body.

It doesn’t matter what exercise you chose to do, remember to check with your physician before starting a new regiment – better to be safe than sorry.

Be Blessed – No Stress in 2014!

Hello Friends and Happy Monday

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and was able to get outside to enjoy the beautiful warm weather, it was definitely the best Saturday since the new year began. Spring is right around the corner so it’s time to start thinking about ditching the bulky sweaters for more body revealing clothing which makes Chapter 5 of Super Foods for Seniors ~ Body Slimming Secrets perfectly timed.

Menopause is making it very difficult for me to lose weight, even though I try to eat the right foods and limit my wine consumption, I know I need to increase calorie burning exercises. However, in addition to exercise the following foods can help tame the fat and fight the flab.

Applesauce – unsweetened as a substitute for butter or oil in baking

Popcorn – mid-afternoon snack topped with a dash of olive oil

Pear – high in fiber snack to make you feel full longer

Cayenne – spice up your dish with this fat burning spice, hot peppers or small amounts of Tabasco Sauce – which is great on popcorn as well

Smart steps to safe weight loss:

Eat only what you can burn

Control your portions

Eat more plant than animal foods

Exercise regularly

Keep a food diary

Set realistic goals

Don’t DIEt – just eat healthy

Most people want to lose a few pounds but eating the right foods alone won’t make it happen, it must be combined with some form of exercise. Check with your health care professional before starting any new exercise regiments to stay safe and healthy.